“Hopefully this year we’ll be able to take the win”

Mitchell Guthrie is none other than the son of the legendary racer Mitch Guthrie Senior. Mitch Junior succeeded his father in 2018 and 2019, after winning the WORCS Unlimited Series (2015), the UTV world championships (2016) and the Baja 1000, which he won in 2017, along with the Mint 400, all before his 22nd birthday. A competitive journey that the American could have continued without ever having left the United States. Instead, Mitch decided to take up the challenge proposed by the Red Bull Off-Road Junior team: the Dakar. On the first edition in Saudi Arabia, he won stage 4, before being forced to continue the adventure in the Dakar Experience category due to engine failure. He won two more stages and returned in 2021 only to lose more than four hours in stage 1 with punctures. This didn’t dampen the American’s enthusiasm and he showed he more than deserved his place by setting the third fastest outright time on stage 4 before suffering another engine problem. Mitch was counting on putting an end to his misfortune on the 2022 Dakar but tested positive for Covid just before leaving for Jeddah. Then after finishing 5th in class on the Rallye du Maroc, for the Andalucia Rally, Mitch switched to the brand new 2023 spec T3 built by the French MCE-5 team with the hugely experienced Kellon Walch as co-driver. The car performed well and had a further shakedown on the Dubai International Baja. Their 2023 Dakar started promisingly before stage 5 mechanical problems put paid to any hopes of victory, with stage 11 pushing them further down the field. However, a grand total of 5 stage wins was enough to warrant them and their car being entered into the entire 2023 W2RC series which they very nearly won, missing out on overall victory to Seth Quintero by an agonisingly small margin just 5 points.

Kellon Walch: “Last year’s Dakar wasn’t the result we wanted but the team improved the car everyday and our 5 stage wins proved what both we and the car were capable of. Hopefully this year we’ll be able to put it all together and take the win. It is everyone’s goal but we’re one of the favourites. That’s a little bit of pressure, but a good kind of pressure.”